Telecommunications headsets are well known in the art and can be used by a variety of persons in a diversity of applications, including telephone operators, radio operators, aircraft personnel and other situations in which “hands-free” access to telecommunications systems is desirable.
Most telecommunications headsets are connected to existing phone systems through the use of a headset adapter or base unit. A headset adapter or base unit allows the telecommunications headset to be connected to any one of a variety of different telephone systems at the telephone handset port. The adapter or base unit adjusts for proper wiring, necessary gain, and impedance matching for both transmitting voice signals to and receiving voice signals from the telecommunications headset.
Additionally, conventional headset adapters or base units may also be configured to provide power, as needed, to various accessories of the telecommunications headset. For example, most headsets require the handset receiver to be lifted for each call. A remote handset hookswitch control may be configured to automatically toggle between handset/headset operations. Alternately, an automatic handset lifting device, such as the Smith Corona SMC89842, may be used to automatically lift the handset at the touch of a button. These headset accessory devices may be coupled to a conventional headset adapter in order to provide power to the accessory whenever the headset adapter is activated.
As an additional example, users often wear headsets throughout the day and there may be no way for others to determine whether a user is actually engaged in a phone conversation. Accordingly, in-use or on-line indicators may be coupled to or provided with the headset adapter base in order to indicate when the user is actually engaged in a phone conversation. These on-line indicators typically include at least one light emitting diode which is activated whenever the headset adapter base is actively transmitting and receiving signals to and from the headset. Once again, this type of on-line indicator may be coupled to a conventional headset adapter in order to provide power to the on-line indicator whenever the headset adapter is activated.
However, conventional headset adapters do not currently provide true control over the operation of various headset accessories. Instead, conventional headset adapters are only capable of providing power to these accessories in order to turn these accessories on or off. Typically, this is done by providing a signaling line between the headset adapter and the accessory, with the signaling line providing a voltage swing between 0 and 5 volts.
This configuration is inadequate for several reasons. First, it does not allow for accessories requiring different on and off voltage level swings. The voltage swing is fixed in any given headset adapter base and future accessories may not be arbitrarily added to an existing system configuration unless these accessories specifically conform to the fixed voltage swing of the headset adapter. Moreover, this configuration is also inadequate because it does not allow for more than mere on/off control of an accessory. There is no way of monitoring the current status of an accessory, providing direct control over the operation of the accessory, or detecting errors in the operation of an accessory. Instead, each headset accessory must be separately controlled and monitored. Finally, each individual headset accessory must be disconnected from the system and individually tested in order to detect errors and ensure proper operation of the accessory.
Accordingly, what is needed is an efficient method and apparatus for providing direct, centralized control over various accessories to a telecommunications headset and headset adapter base. What is further needed is an efficient method and apparatus for easily adding additional accessories to a telecommunications system even if the additional accessories may each have differing power requirements. What is further needed is a method and apparatus which is also able to provide on-the-fly testing of various headset accessories in order to quickly and accurately determine if the accessory is working properly.